How a 1910 Co-op Conquered Elevator Retrofit Challenges

Retrofitting a building’s elevator is one challenge, but equally important are its aesthetics. Louis Lipson, a principal at Ethelind Coblin Architects, unpacks the story of a 1910 co-op that was upgrading its elevators to meet current building codes, but had historical elevator doors that were integral to their ambience. In this interview, conducted by Habitat’s Paula Chin, he explains how the two challenges were met.

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Transcript

Paula Chin: Welcome to Problem Solved, a conversation about challenges facing New York Co-op and condo board directors. I'm Paula Chin of Habitat Magazine and with me today is Louis Lipson, a principal at Ethelind Coblin Architect. Welcome, Louis. 

Louis Lipson: Hi, how are you? Thanks, Paula. 

Paula Chin: Elevator upgrades are a fact of life for co-op and condo boards. Retrofitting the mechanical systems is one challenge, but equally important are the aesthetics and getting shareholder and unit owner buy-in. You worked on an Upper West side building that struggled with this, and particularly with its decorative elevator doors.

Can you tell us about it? 

Louis Lipson: Absolutely. I'd love to go over the pain points of the building which are, I'm sure very consistent with many of the other co-ops and condos throughout the city that were built in the early 20th century. This building was a 1910 building and as you alluded to at the introduction here needed to upgrade their elevators due to the age of the system, the age of the cars and a series of noncompliant issues, with them.

And in in doing this, , there was a series of time limitations that the building was working under. And a series of code limitations that restricted what they could do and how quickly they needed to make decisions and engaged us as design professionals who have done many elevator upgrades over the past two decades for these buildings to help guide them as quickly as possible.

Paula Chin: I understand one of the big things that the building had to consider were the doors on each landing. If you could tell us about that. 

Louis Lipson: This building was built in 19 10, 19 15 in that era. And the doors were original.

And this was a few decades after elevators were really introduced to the city. And, things were still being experimented with, explored, and there was really no robust code. These elevator doors, they're historical.

There was a lot of value to them for both the residents and the building itself because of that. But, as part of this upgrade, we couldn't retain them. 

The elevator doors have a cast iron doorframe just like a regular doorway into an apartment, for instance. And within that frame, there were two door panels. A typical door slides behind a wall when the elevator's opening.

And in this case the elevator door that you walk through when the door opens is sliding behind a fixed panel that matches the door within that cast iron opening. So those door panels, the two door panels, one is fixed, one is operable. They were filled with glass, wire glass specifically when the building was built.

They were very large pane of glass that was divided into into 10 sections with muttons. And those muttons had a thickness to them about half an inch thick and it had a lot of texture and life because of that. The doors themselves originally were probably painted and had clear wire glass in them.

Over the years, every floor got to treat the elevator doors differently because like many of these buildings, there were a limited number of shareholders on each floor, and those shareholders were allowed together to redecorate the elevator vestibule however they chose to. So in some cases the doors were painted different colors.

Some were stripped to raw cast iron and lacquered. Others had the wire glass removed and mirror installed. Some had decorative glass installed. So it was a wide range of variations that happened throughout the stories of the building. 

Paula Chin: So a real hodgepodge, and let me just understand again.

So you've got a metal frame, cast iron frame, and then as you said, glass, so it's like a window pane. 

Louis Lipson: Yeah. You can think of it as a traditional window pane where, you know when glass was first invented, there was no ability to make large sheets of glass that exist in, modern double-hung windows, for instance. Okay. 

Paula Chin: And to clarify, so these were the doors on each landing. Now my understanding is that you've got your mechanical door that slides open a pocket door, and then this was the door that you would, if you were on the landing, that you would see first.

Louis Lipson: So there's basically two doors for the elevator to open. So you have the door in the car itself, which is a thickness, and then that marries up with the panel that's on the floor, preventing people from falling through.

So then when the elevator gets to that floor, both of those doors slide open together. 

Paula Chin: And these were on like a hinge? 

Louis Lipson: So originally the door that you would walk through most of the time was on a slide, just elevator doors you can think of today, but the two door panels that were within that overall cast iron doorway opening could swing open together so you could basically double the width of the opening originally. It's a common feature in a lot of service cars, but I believe the restriction with that is that you need to have the car manned at all times, which was just something that this building did away with decades ago. Because of that, the elevator itself wasn't designed to allow for the swinging operation. And that hinged panel which would swing open when the first door slid behind it was fixed by the time we were involved. And as such, the replacement was also fixed.

Paula Chin: So tell me about what the board decided to replace it with. 

Louis Lipson: Sure. Just backing up a second a lot of times these projects are done kind of independent of a designer, especially if they're trying to just replicate what was there before and with this particular building because the building's over a hundred years old, they wanted to mimic what was there. So inside the elevator itself the contractor was tasked with matching what was there. And our involvement with that was just verifying that he was doing a good job in working with kit of parts that are available now to mimic it and match it. With the elevator doors, unfortunately there was no way of matching it exactly. You can't have that much glass in a door in one of these residential buildings that would mimic what was there in a meaningful way. And then there's another restriction in protrusion, allowances on the door itself, which prevented us from creating a very, deep refined texture to the door that was originally there. So there was two problems that the building was facing that they couldn't solve on their own. One was they wanted to retain the history of the building and the history of these elevators in their landings, which were very petite spaces.

And they couldn't figure out how to do that in a meaningful way. And then obviously addressing all of the code issues. So what we did was we explored a few different concepts pulling from motifs in the building itself to try to create something that would feel in keeping with the building and may even be perceived as original to it in a decade or two.

Paula Chin: And what was that design, Louis? 

Louis Lipson: So initially, we explored pulling from decorative grates on entrance doors. We looked at pulling textures and patterns from the py lasters in the lobby. And then we also looked at this cast iron and glass partition that separates the entrance vestibule of the building from the lobby at large.

And that had subtle variations in the paneling. And it had some characteristics that we thought were subtle enough that we could mimic with the restraints that the code put on us for these doors. So that's where we began with our exploration, those three kind of motifs in the building.

And at the end the board selected the one that was mimicking that vestibule partition. It was subtle enough but also had enough texture that it felt appropriate to the space.

Paula Chin: Again, for our listeners, describe to me what the door was made of and what it looked like. 

Louis Lipson: So the the original kind of reference that we were pulling from in the lobby was cast iron. It was allowed to rust over the years and was lacquered.

It had a very dappled texture and characteristic that everyone really loved and appreciates. So we've looked at a number of materials initially brass being one of them's very typical elevator door material, stainless steel being another. Both were ruled out for all sorts of reasons.

And then we landed upon cold rolled steel, which is a material that's used for kind of the base construction of the elevator doors, typically. And is usually not used for the finish because it can rust. But that's exactly what we wanted to happen in the future for these doors: small amounts of surface rust that would then be lacquered and sealed away. So the doors themselves were patina in a dark kind of chocolatey finish in cold rolled steel and then lacquered. There's a single set of panels on each door. And given the code constraints, we were able to layer a frame on those doors in the same material that's an eighth of an inch step.

Anything more than that wouldn't comply with contemporary codes. And that was sufficient for us to actually create this kind of textured appearance. 

Paula Chin: So this is a solid door, a solid steel rolled door, obviously with no more glass. And how did you present this to the board and were all of the shareholders involved? Did it take a while to come to a consensus? And how did you convey what it would look like to them? 

Louis Lipson: Sure. Luckily before we got involved the building was smart enough to create a design committee.

So it was mostly board members. I think there was a couple of shareholders that weren't on the board, but were interested in being involved in the project that were the point team on the building side that we worked with through all of this. When we were engaged, we had six weeks of time basically to both, design the project and get it approved internally by the building so that they could hit their start date that they put upon the elevator team. If we didn't hit that six week window, the project would've slid later into the year and it would've been cumbersome for all of the residents using the elevator in the fall when it became busy again.

Within that six week window, we had to confirm all of the code requirements. We did that with, a panel meeting with the entire project team, including all of the elevator consultants and the contractors to make sure whatever we propose actually could be built and built in the timeline the building wants this done in. So we started there. We then prepared some rendered images basically photorealistic of the three options. The building chose the one that we discussed earlier where we're pulling from the vestibule wall motif. And from there the biggest challenge was getting the building to understand what an eighth of an inch variation in this material thickness would actually look like.

Because again, they were used to something with a lot more texture on the panels. And they were concerned that it wasn't going to read in a pleasant way. So to address that we 3D printed a physical model about 12 inches tall of the panel. So everything was to scale. So they really were able to see the textural difference between the two different layers of each door panel.

That was extremely important in getting everyone to understand what it would look like. 'cause a physical model's a lot easier to walk around and look at from different perspectives and which you can't get from a photo obviously. 

Paula Chin: Tell me how this 3D printer works. Obviously instead of ink, I would imagine it's printing layers of plastic that therefore creates, as you said, this one eighth inch depth. 

Louis Lipson: Sure. Yeah. A 3D model or 3D printed model specifically is exactly that. It's printed plastic. It's printing it just like a regular inkjet printer except the plastic has a material thickness.

Unlike ink. It's a 32nd of an inch thick, let's say, sometimes even thinner. And as it goes back and forth it layers upon itself over and over again, over the course of many hours, sometimes days, depending on the size of the print until you have something that's three dimensional as opposed to just 2D like a inkjet piece of paper. 

Paula Chin: Was this presented to the board, to the committee? All the shareholders had to buy in? 

Louis Lipson: All the shareholders didn't have to buy in because it's a co-op, but the building wanted that as much as possible.

They wanted everyone to be on board with the change because it's a dramatic change. These elevator vestibules on each floor are very small. A couple of apartments on each floor were able to decorate those landings however they chose. So they wanted to be sure that everyone was at least generally comfortable with the aesthetic choices being made.

So initially the print was presented to the board, which got them to approve the general design of the project. And from there as part of preparation of that 3D model, we've hand painted it afterwards. 'Cause it comes out-- 3D printer prints white. Some can print in color, but that's a different story.

So we hand painted the model afterwards. It was double sided. One side was painted white and the other side was painted to look like a patina cold rolled steel door. And the purpose of that initially was to just get the design committee to understand the different finishes that are possible with cold rolled steel.

But at the end of the day the building decided to present this to the whole building not at a formal meeting; they just left the model in the lobby, along with an actual physical patina'd sample of the cold rolled steel itself to give all of the floors the option to choose between whether or not they wanted the doors to be delivered patina'd or primed white.

Paula Chin: And so what people decided was as you said, they agreed on this cold rolled steel, and then that steel can actually, as you said, you can treat it so that there's a little bit of rust, which gives it character and then it is painted and then finished with some sort of sealant. Is that how the process works?

Louis Lipson: So the cold rolled steel will rust unless it's either lacquered or painted. So what was done with this scope, we didn't really let it rust at all yet. That's something that'll just happen over the next century of this building's existence. What was done was we patinaed the door to a color that everyone approved and it was hand patinaed, so it was somewhat uneven and it was a little cloudy effect that happened because of that, which we thought added a little bit more depth to the door itself.

And then that patina finish, if it's un lacquered will rust. So then it received a matte lacquer. Which has to be maintained relatively regularly depending on how frequently the doors get handled and touched because lacquer rubs off. Just like when you have a lacquered brass knob, for instance on a door.

So when you lose the lac or that's when the rust starts to happen, and then you can repatina and re-lacquer it to protect it again. So that's something that through the life of the building, every floor will basically be able to decide when they want to do that.

The alternative option, the painting option, which no one in the building actually decided to get the door delivered that way because you can actually just paint over the patina cold rolled steel. So everyone decided to get the specialty finish up first. And that's still how it exists today on every floor. But they have the option in a year, two years, 10 years, 20 years, to paint the doors entirely to match whatever aesthetic they have on the elevator floor. 

Paula Chin: So are the doors all installed and is everybody happy with the decision? 

Louis Lipson: Yeah. All the doors are installed.

The elevator's functioning. There's one passenger elevator in the building, so it's only one car that had to be done. The elevator company was able to turn this around pretty much in line with the original timeframe that the board was hoping it would be completed in.

There was a few open systems issues that were resolved over the months that followed, but the elevators were functioning and usable by the building, and everyone is happy, especially with decisions about the door that were made. 

Paula Chin: This is a fascinating project, I have to say, especially the the 3D part, which can help people decide because I know that with elevator upgrades, it can be a very sensitive issue. Louis, thank you so much for joining us today. 

Louis Lipson: My pleasure.